Bar @ Buena Vista

I’ve always had a penchant for World Music and more specifically, Latin music. However, it wasn’t until a chance encounter with a particular CD that made the foray into son and the genre even more enjoyable.

Several years back I was browsing the World Music Section at Pennylane Music in Subang Parade. I like this store because, during the times before Tower Records, Music Exchange or The Rock Corner and the like, they’d stock a sizeable collection of World music that I’d love to riffle through (they’re no longer there though, as I found out recently and I have no idea where they went. In their place will be a new Rock Corner). During one such riffling session, I came across a CD that would take me into the world of the Buena Vista Social Club. It was Ruben Gonzalez’s

Introducing…Ruben Gonzalez.

I never looked back. From the moment the auntie in the shop cut off the plastic wrap on the CD, I knew in my gut that this old fogy would open up a whole new world for me. And he did. I was hooked with his first opening notes on the piano. The whole week long I was listening to Ruben Gonzalez stroke the keys and making up my own moves to go with the music. I had not thought of learning salsa then.
I was fascinated by the playfulness, spirit,and  richness of Cuban music, and was irrevocably hooked. In the ensuing months and years, I added Buena Vista Social Club, Ibrahim Ferrer, Compay Segundo, The Afro-Cuban All Stars and most other music of the genre to my collection. It’s still growing.

And so it was with great anticipation that I looked forward to catching Bar @ Buena Vista here in KL two nights ago. More so after a trip down to Singapore to catch it ended up in thin air.

I was lucky enough, as it is, to have caught Omara Portuondo when she came to KL several years back, and then Ibrahim Ferrer when he performed in Japan in 2003. I wasn’t about to miss a chance at catching the old guys rocking the house down with their infectious music.

Seeing living legends Reynaldo Creagh, Jose 'Maracaibo' Castaneda and Maestro Gonzala Rubalcaba perform last night made me realise yet again how old these guys are and that I am really lucky to be able to see them perform because I don't know how much longer they will be around. These octogenarians show the world that they may be getting on in age, but they can surely shine with their talent and their love of life.

Bar @ Buena Vista in KL was different because it was performed in a hotel, not an auditorium or concert hall. Having said that, I feel I must take a crack at criticizing the hotel for lousy parking arrangements. Not only would we not get into the parking lot, we couldn’t even figure out how to get to the valet. What kind of crap management is this? We ended up maneuvering my bulky car up the cramped ramp to the KL Sentral parking lot and had to park in an unauthorized parking spot.

Anyway, I digress. Like I was saying this performance was different. Not only was it not performed in a hall or auditorium fitting for a musical performance, the audience was standing room only. At first, I thought it was silly but then I realized that maybe the organizers wanted to recreate the whole feel of the bar at Buena Vista (on second thoughts, I still think it was because they didn’t have enough chairs and seating and that the ballroom was too small). By the time the intermission had come and gone, the women had kicked off their heels and settled for being barefoot and swaying with the music.

Emcee Carlos Bustamante hosted most of the show, and took the liberty to introduce the musicians and dancers. He has a booming voice and equally evident presence and made a fitting host.

It was awe-inspiring (and entertaining) to watch 87-year old Reynaldo shimmy with smooth moves and gyrate with a surprisingly flexible pelvis. He oozed out moves that would put the average non-dancing Malaysian man to shame. You'd think that the old guy sitting in the rocker while the dancers were whizzing by him and diva Siomara was belting her lungs out, that he'd nod off to sleep. In fact, he stifled a yawn or two. Well, once the man gets out of his rocker, he's no pushover. Not only did he woo everyone with his beautiful, robust (for an octogenarian)  and richly-timbred, expressive vocals, he played to the audience's thunderous applause and bust out several moves to boot. It was pure magic. And the audience lapped it up.

The camaraderie Reynaldo shared with Maracaibo was just as entertaining to watch. The fabulous Maracaibo would teasingly tweak the twang out of his Trey guitar with his deft fingers and you could just see that he was egging Reynaldo to poke his walking stick at him. Poke, twang, poke, twang. Poke,  TWANG! An outburst from Reynaldo and a dismissive hand gesture or two from both musicians, a few foot stompings and the music and camaraderie resume. What mischievous fun!

And can Maestro Rubalcaba play! The piano comes alive under his fingers, though I thought the crowd was too noisy and wasn’t appreciative enough. The maestro skillfully plied his keyboard, plonking out classics like La Vie En Rose and Volare, stopping just at  the chorus point to encourage us and hear us belt out the lines, “Volare, Oh oh…! Cantare Oh oh oh Oh!” , which tailed off to laughs as we didn’t know the lyrics to the following lines after . A shrug or two later, Rubalcaba continues on with the well-loved classic and the crowd is back to clapping and humming along.

Leo Vera, from the Afro Cuban All Stars, gave just as rousing a performance, with his rich and melodious vocals. Eric Turro was superb. Now I know why he needed a ‘sturdier’ dance partner: he kept plugging stunts like water, leaning on his partner for support throughout much of his stunts. I remarked more than once to Sharie that the girl must be really strong and now I know why she’s dancing with him. Arms flailing, legs flailing, hand over leg, death drops, spinning and kneeling on the spot with his partner as support, and probably other technical terms that I can’t even begin to spout.

I was privileged enough after the 20-minute intermission to work my way to the front of the crowd to catch all the action. My disappointment with not being able to see over the tops of everyone’s heads during the first half of the show prompted me to abandon dancing too much during the break just so I could book a spot in the front.

And it paid off. I got to catch the moves, the grooves and the sights. And at least I didn’t have to leave telling people I’d gone there to see the act live but ended up watching the big screen instead. I got to witness a besotted auntie yelling to one of the women dancers to pull the other younger male dancer to the centre of the stage during one of Eric Turro’s staged routines where he spurns the attentions of the women dancers. And after the show, caught the same aunty saying over and over, “He’s so gorgeous!” to her friend (the young male dancer, not Eric Turro).

Of course, the show wouldn’t be complete without a diva, and it had added star quality in Siomara Avilla Valdes Lescay. Although I must say, I am more familiar with Omara Portuondo, Siomara held her own and shook the house with her powerful voice. Why is it though, that Cuban women love their wraps? The mature women always appear in toga-like mulit-hued or glittering wraps. Toga or no toga though, Cuban women sure can move and they have no qualms about being sexy even at their age and size.

In all that music and dance extravaganza, I overlooked Buena Vista Social Club co-founder, Carlos Gonzalez on the bongos. Heck, I didn’t even realize he was there until later, when roll call was being made to introduce the musicians. So much for my knowing who’s who in the ensemble. Luis Frank’s ensemble though was in a class of their own. Here again, I found the audience less appreciative of the musicians’ talents, especially that of young talented trumpeter, Julio Padron. At the end of an interlude, he was playing his trumpet really soft. You could hardly hear it for the noise of people in conversation somewhere towards the back of the room. Imbeciles!

The show ended with Siomara’s rendition of Compay Segundo’s Chan Chan, a fitting finale, I thought. The group received a raucous encore and obliged the crowd with another number. After that, it was Adios Amigos!

A superb show, loaded with bushels of entertainment and a fountain of talent. It’s really sad that a large portion of that fountain is in their 80s. We may not see or hear them live for much longer.